CHAPTER XII 



SOME BY-DAYS 



* * See that old hound ^ 

 How busily he inorks, but dares not trust 

 His doubtful sense, draw yet a wider ring ; 

 Hark now again the chortis Jills.'^ 



— SOMERVILE. 



MANY of our best gallops and finest hunts 

 have taken place on by-days or days 

 snatched unexpectedly in the middle of a 

 frost, when it had given sufficiently to be safe for 

 horses' legs and hounds' feet, and very often on 

 the day before it settled down again with more 

 than its former severity. And after a carefully 

 kept record of the weather conditions in relation 

 to scent, I can only learn this, that we've had an 

 unfailing good scent just before the oncoming of a 

 hard frost, and generally on a light east wind day 

 with a rising but not too high barometer. Upon the 

 month depends a good deal ; and perhaps during 

 February, when the ground is drying not too fast, 

 more straight-out fast gallops occur than in any 

 other ; but scent may be good in any month pro- 

 vided the weather is not too unsettled and change- 

 able. 



The most notable of days snatched from the arms 

 of the frost was that on which " the grey fox of 



